Labour backs Tory member's Bill to protect MPs' privacy

The Labour Party is mounting a covert campaign to push through a new law to exclude MPs from the Freedom of Information Act, critics have claimed.

An email from Labour's influential parliamentary committee urges its backbench MPs to support a private member's Bill that would prevent the public using the new right-to-know legislation to see MPs' correspondence.

The Bill, championed by David Maclean, a former Tory whip, and due to go back to the Commons this week, has been criticised by some parliamentarians and freedom-of-information campaigners as an assault on democracy and an attempt to spare the embarrassment of MPs. If enacted, it would grant all MPs and members of the House of Lords an exemption from the law.

The Government has refused to say whether it supports or opposes the Bill and has left it up to MPs to come to their own decision. But the intervention by the Parliamentary Labour Party is an indication that party managers want the exemption to go through.

Maurice Frankel of the Campaign for Freedom of Information said that MPs' constituency correspondence was already protected by two exemptions in the FOI Act, one banning the disclosure of personal information in breach of the Data Protection Act and the other stopping disclosure which would be in breach of confidence under common law.

Mr Frankel said: "The purpose of David Maclean's Bill is to protect MPs, not constituents. By supporting this Bill, MPs would be saying they regard the FOI Act as an unnecessary nuisance, which they should not have to comply with. "

Jack Straw also gave his tacit support for the Bill on Thursday when he told the Commons that the publication of MPs' correspondence "would drive a coach and horses through the relationship that we have with constituents".

Mr Straw said: "It is all very well for some people to say that there are some exemptions, but the truth is that the way that some journalists and the Information Commissioner are acting means that that intention is not being met in practice"

The email from Labour MPs Tony Lloyd, Angela Eagle, Kevan Jones, Ann Cryer, Joan Ruddock, Martin Salter and Don Touhig says: "We feel strongly that the measures contained in the Bill, which would protect the confidentiality of MPs' correspondence on behalf of constituents, are worthy of support."

After the email was sent, one MP, David Winnick, protested to his colleagues: "Many of us are deeply disappointed that party managers are actively encouraging members to come in to support the private member's Bill that would exempt Parliament from the FOI legislation."